Monday, May 16, 2011

In my enthusiasm to embrace the 21st Century and try out a pre-scheduled blogpost, I totally neglected to give my last post a title! So much for progress........

In regards to other progress, the bottle wall emerged from it's wooden frame intact! Not so for my friend Cindy's creation, which cracked right in half. The remaining two bottle walls did survive along with mine. It was starting to get dark when we got the call to come see the "unveiling" so the photos are not so great. Of course it is RAINING again today, but I hope to get some more colorful and bright shots later in the week.

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Mine on the far right. Should be standing with bottles pointing downward.

Top view

Kind of hard to see the bottle showing on both sides of the concrete. In the bucket below are "sea turtles" swimming. I made them from the leftover scraps of concrete mix and pressed some marbles and beads into them for detail. They need to "cure" in the water bath for a while.

Spent several hours ( thanks to my slow dial-up Internet connection) "de-stashing" on Etsy. The financial situation has become pretty bleak around here, so I listed a few crafty items for sale. Wouldn't you know it, the one I least wanted to sell sold within an hour. So sad to see these kitties go, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

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Steinlen Cats
Boston Museum of Fine Arts Collection

﻿It's turning into a real "poor pitiful me" kinda day. Have those every once in a while. Never in a million years did I think I would be so unemployable. Things (meaning bills) are starting to pile up and this feeds my stress and anxiety issues. Not that any part of me needs feeding at all! Can't even muster the motivation to exercise, which just makes me more anxious and depressed. Ah, the wheel goes round and round...............

Sunday, May 15, 2011

A cross-stitch finish! Yeah!!! Here's the latest addition to my little Etsy gymnastics family. Lauren Mitchell of Australia, 2011 World Champion on Floor Exercise. Now if I could just sell one of these darn things!

Lauren Mitchell (Australia)

Some torturous beading and metallic thread work was involved, but I like the results.
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close-up of beadwork

Last Friday(6th) was Bottle Wall Day at my neighbor Sharee's house. She taught a group of 4 friends how to make bottle walls, a new craft for me. 3-4 inches of sand was pressed into wooden frames. Then we selected some colorful empty wine bottles and pressed then about 1/2 into the sand. A layer of specially mixed concrete (that's what Sharee is doing in the photo below) is plopped in about 2 inches thick and spread around the bottles. We next put in little pieces of chicken wire to stabalize the whole thing. Thi was topped with another inch of the concrete mix. At this stage we added some surface decorations, like engraved lettering, beads, stones and other textural objects. The unveling should be some time before the end of this weekend.﻿﻿﻿
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Holly, Sharee(side view), Me

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This little pair of socks was finished last week too. Just haven't had a chance to take a new photo yet. The pari on the needles now is Red Heart Heart & Sole "Green Envy". I've made a pair of this color before, but they were snapped up before I even had a chance to try them on.

Deborah Norville Serenity Sock Yarn "Citrine"

﻿﻿﻿﻿ As I experiment a bit with Blogger, I am trying this as a "scheduled post". It feels a bit odd to be writing in the future! I wonder if it's raining again, if my garden has actually gotten plowed up, if any progress has been made on the doll dresses? Only time will tell......................

Saturday, May 14, 2011

﻿Not necessarily! Digging through fabrics and endlessly browsing the Internet for photos and this is what I came up with. Wow, the old sepia-tone photos just don't do these fashions justice. Look at the amazing color of this 1860's dress!

1869 Madame Vignon gown

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﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿The mix of color and texture on this dress is so interesting. Check out that seemingly random pink bow....but it works!

1895 Day Dress

﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿ Again, a mix of fabrics that works well. So soft and graceful.
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1905 Pink Crepe Gown

This one will most likely be the first I attempt. I have quite a few 1895 patterns draw up already. A few alterations to the sleeve and collar and I might be able to capture the essence of this beauty.﻿﻿
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1895 Worth Day Dress

Another rainy day after a few pretty nice days previously. Tuesday thru Friday it was up into the 80sF with bright sun. Now it's back to the "usual". I can't even get out to rototill the garden plot. Just when I thought it would dry out a bit from last week's downpours, here it comes again. At least all the grass got cut last night, finally! So it's on to "indoor pursuits". 1pm and still I am typing and browsing and not much is actually getting done....................................﻿